Communication of various vehicle parameters to a driver is through instrument panels, such as a tachometer, a speedometer, an odometer, a trip odometer, a fuel indicator, a temperature indicator, and various indicators (e.g., maintenance, brake, oil change, tire pressure, door, airbag, seat belt and other indicators). A conventional instrument panel typically includes a round assembly having a pointing hand that provides an indication of a current reading of a vehicle parameter—e.g., speed, fuel level, rotation speed of the engine (RPM), current trip distance, total distance in the lifetime of the vehicle, engine temperature, temperature inside the vehicle.
Conventionally, placement of instrument panels in a vehicle is typically fixed with each instrument panel being separate and independent from each other. For example, speed information is conveyed through a speedometer separate and independent from the RPM information conveyed through a tachometer. Thus, a round assembly representing the speedometer is typically placed in the center of instrument display area right in front of the driver and the tachometer is typically placed on the left side of the instrument display area.
A few drawbacks are associated with the separate and independent placement of the conventional instrument panels. First, certain types of vehicle, such as motorcycle or scooter, have fairly limited space for the instrument display area. Communication of other information for those types of vehicle becomes a challenge when speed, fuel, battery and RPM panels already occupy their designated spaces on the instrument display area. Second, vehicle driving is increasingly embodied in information communication to the driver(s) and passenger(s) of the vehicle. For example, entertainment information in a video screen on the dashboard of the vehicle is more and more desired by the driver(s) of the vehicle, and so are notifications regarding incoming text and calls, information regarding area(s) the vehicle is traveling in, environment temperature, etc. With more and more of such information is desired, it is a challenge to present all of such information on the dashboard when various instrument panels have already occupy a sizeable amount of space on the driver side dashboard.
Developments in liquid crystal display (LCD) technology have made free-form display on a dashboard a reality. Equipped with the new free-form display technology, a LCD screen can be snipped and shaped to fit virtually any layout design on a dashboard and to fill the entire surface area of the dashboard. The free-form display's flexibility makes it possible to integrate every necessary monitor or gauge, from speedometer to odometer, into a single instrument panel.